How the first men on the moon faced certain death on Apollo 11… until a simple felt tip pen came to their rescue
BUZZ Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were seconds away from never returning back to earth after one of the ship's most important switches broke.
The circuit breaker that activated the ascent engine, getting them off the moon, had broken - so Aldrin decided to think outside the box and use a felt-tip pen to flick the switch instead.
Taken from Jonathan Mayo's book Titanic: Minute By Minute, Mayo writes of the nail-biting moment that the most iconic space missions nearly ended in disaster.
Monday, July 21 1969
9.00am
Having eaten a meal of cocktail sausages, the astronauts are trying to sleep — Armstrong curled up on the cover of the ascent engine and Aldrin on the floor.
But to Aldrin’s horror, he sees a circuit breaker switch that has broken off.
Aldrin scans the instrument panels and gulps when he sees that the switch is for electrical power to the ascent engine that will hopefully get them safely back to Columbia.
They report the issue to Mission Control, then, because the module is cold, put their gloves and helmets on and try to sleep.
2.31pm
CapCom Ronald Evans wakes up Collins in Columbia but he lets Armstrong and Aldrin sleep for another 45 minutes.
‘We’re going to keep you a little busy here,’ he apologises to Collins, who has 850 separate computer key commands to make in the next few hours before the ascent stage section of the lunar module docks with Columbia.
‘850 chances for me to screw it up,’ Collins admitted.
‘You’re cleared for take-off,’ Evans says to Armstrong and Aldrin on Eagle. ‘Roger. Understand. We’re number one on the runway,’ Aldrin jokes.
He and Armstrong have been on the moon for more than 21 hours.
Mission Control have failed to find a solution for the broken switch, but Aldrin thinks he may have one. He is holding a chrome-bodied felt-tip pen in the hole.
If it doesn’t work, or the ascent engine fails, they have no hope of rescue.
Above them in Columbia, Collins is sweating with nerves. ‘My secret terror for the last six months has been leaving them on the moon and returning to Earth alone,’ he said. He has practised flying Columbia home without his colleagues.
5.54pm
Aldrin starts a countdown: ‘9, 8, 7, 6, 5...proceed.’
The felt-tip pen works, Eagle’s ascent engine fires, explosive bolts release the ascent stage section from the landing gear and a guillotine severs power cables between the two.
Clouds of dust surround the lunar module as it lifts off, leaving the legs on the surface of the moon. Aldrin sees the American flag fall over. Back on Earth, their families are crying with relief.
6.01pm
Eagle is now in lunar orbit and will be united with Columbia by a combination of radar, precise navigation and Armstrong's skilful use of Eagle's thruster rockets.
7.52pm
Eagle piloted by Armstrong is just 15 miles beneath Columbia. The two million parts that make up Columbia are functioning well and Collins has been preparing it for his colleagues’ return. He said that he felt like a 'hotel proprietor' "about to receive the onrush of skiers coming out of the cold. I could make them more welcome unless I had a fireplace."
9.35pm
Three hours and 41 minutes after lifting off from the moon, Eagle and Columbia are just 50ft apart. Eagle has braked to a halt and Collins must now make sure Columbia is perfectly aligned with the lunar module — and it’s looking good.
‘Jesus!’ Collins thinks, ‘we really are going to carry this thing off!’ The Apollo astronauts only feel a slight nudge as both the spacecrafts connect.
Collins flips a switch to draw Eagle in and finds himself wrestling with a 'wildly veering critter that seems to be trying to escape’. But the spacecraft isn't as perfectly aligned as he thought.
Collins wrestles with the controls and he recalled: "I was sure busy there for a couple of seconds."
10.52pm
Collins opens the hatch to see a smiling Aldrin. He goes to kiss him but the pair go for a handshake instead - both of the men are covered in moon dust.
The three of them start to move equipment, rolls of film and metal boxes with samples from Eagle to Columbia. They use a small vacuum cleaner to remove the dust in Columbia, but it doesn't work.
11.41pm
Eagle's job is over, Columbia then brings the men home. Aldrin are sad to see the lunar module go, so they are pleased it is Collins who flips the switch to release it. There is a bang and Eagle is jettisoned. In a few years it drops out of orbit and crashes on to the moon.
The three men now concentrate on getting back to Earth. Later they have the longest sleep of their whole mission - a solid eight hours.
5.07pm
CapCom Charlie Duke is eager for news of the Trans-Earth Injection burn. Columbia finally emerges from behind the moon. ‘Hello Apollo 11. How did it go?’ Collins grins: ‘Time to open up the LRL (Lunar Receiving Laboratory back on Earth) doors, Charlie!’ ‘Roger’ replies Charlie. ‘We got you coming home.’
Thursday, July 24
4.35pm
Two days later, the command module enters the Earth’s atmosphere at 25,000mph. The astronauts splash down in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.
Someone has placed a bouquet on the grave of President Kennedy at Arlington Cemetery, together with a note: ‘Mr President. The Eagle has landed.’
Before the Apollo programme ended in 1972, ten more men walked on the moon — one of them Charlie Duke of Mission Control. It is estimated that 30,000 everyday products are in use thanks to technology developed for the moon missions.
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Michael Collins never travelled in space again. He now spends his time ‘painting, cooking, reading…and searching for a really good bottle of cabernet under ten dollars’. Buzz Aldrin is a passionate advocate for future space exploration and still has the broken circuit breaker switch and the pen that saved them.
Neil Armstrong became a professor of Aerospace Engineering and a company chairman.
When he died in August 2012, aged 82, his family said the best way to remember him was to ‘honour his example of service...and the next time you walk out on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink’.
